It promises to be the best theatre of the autumn season, but none of us critics will be there to see it. On September 24, some of Broadway's most powerful producers will host a fundraiser for the presidential campaign of senator Barack Obama. The event is closed to press - thanks for nothing, producers - but you can imagine how good it's going to be.

George C Wolfe, whose credits include the Broadway version of Angels in America, will direct a company including Jeffrey Wright, Christine Ebersole, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Marcia Gay Harden in readings drawn from plays by David Mamet, Eugene O'Neill, Tony Kushner and more. And let's not overlook senator Obama himself, deliverer of the most celebrated speech in America this decade. His barnstorming address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 boosted him to immediate national prominence, demonstrating that the showstopping effect that directors pay millions to achieve somehow comes naturally to him.

You may have noticed that we Americans get very excited about the nexus of performers and politicians. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the two leading examples, and what about actor-turned-senator-turned-actor-again Fred Thompson's recent entry into the presidential race?

We also like to see politicians who have never been professional thespians trying their hand on stage and screen. Even in his chest-thumping tough-guy days as mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani liked to relax of an evening by slipping into drag and flirting with Donald Trump. Seriously. A few years ago, I pleaded for somebody to revive I'd Rather Be Right, the 1937 show with songs by Rodgers and Hart and libretto by Kaufman and Hart. Who did I propose for the role of Franklin D Roosevelt? Ex-president Bill Clinton, who had long since proved his easy way with delivering fiction.

Now that Hillary Clinton is running for president - and dragging her husband into ungainly recreations of The Sopranos - I have given up on seeing my Broadway ambitions for Bill fulfilled. So which politicians would you like to see on stage - and in which roles? I can't see Gordon Brown as the new Olivier, but that could just be my American preference for flashy showbiz talking. I'd sooner see Margaret Thatcher come out of retirement: Hello, Dolly! perhaps, or a stab at Lady Bracknell? As for our current president, I find it all too easy to imagine him in any number of cowboy roles, or worse.